A new chapter. The first start of a new book of the Torah for the year 5780. In the many weeks since Simhat Torah, Jewish communities the world over have made our way through the diverse and colorful narratives of the book of Genesis, B’reishit, our beginnings. This week, we close the cover, as it were, on the stories of those ancestors, and turn to our origin story; the Book of Exodus (Sh’mot – Names – in Hebrew).
The Latin name for the book, Exodus (from the Greek “Exodos,” meaning “the road out,”) tells one aspect of the story: the grand, miraculous, tragic, long, dry and dusty part of our people’s tale. The Hebrew name, Sh’mot, means “Names,” in reference to the sacred genealogy at the start of it all. Calling it by it’s Hebrew name gives it even greater power. Yes, the miraculous tale of our people’s escape from Egypt is central to this book, but it is over within the first few parshiot. The remainder of the book deals with the budding relationship between The People Israel and God, with Moses (and Aaron) as the mediators. It is a story of a people becoming a people, and of naming itself.
– Rabbi Callie Schulman